living where we live
Today I finally decided to de-lurk from the Geneva Facebook group I'm in and participate in a discussion about neighbourhoods to live in. I knew the guy who began the thread because we see each other at our Tuesday playgroup so it was easier to just pop up and add my two cents. We'll probably have a more detailed discussion when we meet at playgroup next week, but it started me thinking about the whole apartment hunting process that J and I went through and it made me very relieved and very grateful we managed to get the place we're now living in.
For the uninitiated, Geneva has a very tight rental market and it can be very, very difficult for newbies to get a foothold when they first arrive. Firstly, rental prices are crazy, especially compared to France. Many people choose to live in France and commute into Geneva for work, and they are called 'frontaliers', but recently France has cracked down on tax laws affecting the frontaliers and they are now facing a further squeeze. Anyway, we were lucky in terms of rent because J's company pays for it, so in terms of apartment hunting we had a fair bit of leeway because the budget was pretty comfortable.
Secondly, the key complication to all this is that even if you have loads of money and no issue with paying rent, you need to convince the landlord, or more commonly, the regie to like you enough to rent the place to you. The regie is the real estate company that represents the landlord and you meet with them when you first go for apartment viewings. And that's if they like you enough to begin with to agree to a viewing.
So after you see a place you like, you have to submit a fat dossier of documents for your application - everything to show that you are gainfully employed, what your payslip looks like, proof that you have no criminal record, etc. Furthermore, they take into account things like the size of your family, how old your children are, what ethnicity you are, etc. When we were apartment hunting J and I made sure we dressed up for our viewings and I coached The Bun to greet the regies in French. Anything to make a good impression! We submitted quite a few applications for different places everywhere but we were either rejected or the apartment had already gone to someone else, and I think we eventually got our place because the rent was pretty high and maybe they couldn't find anyone else who could match what they were looking for. Even then, they took their own sweet time to approve our application, which made for a couple of nail-biting weeks for J and me. It is a very competitive market and I know people who simply settled on the first place that accepted their application because they were so desperate for a place to live in.
Anyway, all that is over now and I am really happy with our place. I've already written about our apartment hunt last summer here and I've also mentioned several times how much I love that it's so quiet, and that it has great views of the mountains and lakes. The other day I found an old video in my old iPhone that was recorded in Singapore and it was shocking how much noise there was coming from the construction sites near our flat. A new MRT station is being built right below it so it means that the BOOM BOOM BOOM of the machines go on endlessly. I guess we were just used to it but after months of living in nearly silent surroundings it came as a shock. At 8am here in the morning, for example, I can sit on the sofa in the living room and it will be so quiet that I can hear my ears ring from the silence. (This assumes both kids are still in bed and quietly sleeping!) The downside of this is that when Bao is having one of her midnight meltdowns I worry that the neighbours will freak or get pissed off and call welfare services on us.
Taking a walk in our 'hood
So, back to that Facebook discussion I was on. Since the guy I was talking to is also interested in our neighbourhood, I began forming a mental list of the advantages of our location:
~ walking distance to two different supermarkets, the post office, two pharmacies, a small organic farm (right downstairs!), at least three playgrounds, various restaurants and cafes, a park, and our paediatrician.
~ a short drive of less than ten minutes to: J's office, the UN, the biggest indoor mall in Geneva (where my doctor is), the airport (which is the only place with shops and a supermarket open on Sundays), the train station, the ludotheque (toy library) and the regular book library.
~ less than twenty minutes to the other side of the river, the main part of the city and Old Town (this assumes good traffic)
~ the French border is also less than ten minutes away, as is the Swiss A1 highway which offers easy access to the rest of Switzerland
~ for the children the playgroups we attend are all within a five to ten minute drive, as is Gymboree, where Bao just began visiting
~ and even though we live in a fairly urbanised area, a fifteen minute drive away and we're in the countryside. Cows, sheep, apple farms and all.
Writing all this down has made me realise just how lucky we have been in our apartment search here. It will be a tough act to follow when we eventually move back to Singapore. I know I'll miss the peace and quiet and J will miss his short drive to work. When we first began our search, one of our friends told us to go for the place we really liked because goodness knows just how much time we spend at home since the city isn't exactly hopping with life. Best advice yet.
For the uninitiated, Geneva has a very tight rental market and it can be very, very difficult for newbies to get a foothold when they first arrive. Firstly, rental prices are crazy, especially compared to France. Many people choose to live in France and commute into Geneva for work, and they are called 'frontaliers', but recently France has cracked down on tax laws affecting the frontaliers and they are now facing a further squeeze. Anyway, we were lucky in terms of rent because J's company pays for it, so in terms of apartment hunting we had a fair bit of leeway because the budget was pretty comfortable.
Secondly, the key complication to all this is that even if you have loads of money and no issue with paying rent, you need to convince the landlord, or more commonly, the regie to like you enough to rent the place to you. The regie is the real estate company that represents the landlord and you meet with them when you first go for apartment viewings. And that's if they like you enough to begin with to agree to a viewing.
So after you see a place you like, you have to submit a fat dossier of documents for your application - everything to show that you are gainfully employed, what your payslip looks like, proof that you have no criminal record, etc. Furthermore, they take into account things like the size of your family, how old your children are, what ethnicity you are, etc. When we were apartment hunting J and I made sure we dressed up for our viewings and I coached The Bun to greet the regies in French. Anything to make a good impression! We submitted quite a few applications for different places everywhere but we were either rejected or the apartment had already gone to someone else, and I think we eventually got our place because the rent was pretty high and maybe they couldn't find anyone else who could match what they were looking for. Even then, they took their own sweet time to approve our application, which made for a couple of nail-biting weeks for J and me. It is a very competitive market and I know people who simply settled on the first place that accepted their application because they were so desperate for a place to live in.
Anyway, all that is over now and I am really happy with our place. I've already written about our apartment hunt last summer here and I've also mentioned several times how much I love that it's so quiet, and that it has great views of the mountains and lakes. The other day I found an old video in my old iPhone that was recorded in Singapore and it was shocking how much noise there was coming from the construction sites near our flat. A new MRT station is being built right below it so it means that the BOOM BOOM BOOM of the machines go on endlessly. I guess we were just used to it but after months of living in nearly silent surroundings it came as a shock. At 8am here in the morning, for example, I can sit on the sofa in the living room and it will be so quiet that I can hear my ears ring from the silence. (This assumes both kids are still in bed and quietly sleeping!) The downside of this is that when Bao is having one of her midnight meltdowns I worry that the neighbours will freak or get pissed off and call welfare services on us.
Taking a walk in our 'hood
So, back to that Facebook discussion I was on. Since the guy I was talking to is also interested in our neighbourhood, I began forming a mental list of the advantages of our location:
~ walking distance to two different supermarkets, the post office, two pharmacies, a small organic farm (right downstairs!), at least three playgrounds, various restaurants and cafes, a park, and our paediatrician.
~ a short drive of less than ten minutes to: J's office, the UN, the biggest indoor mall in Geneva (where my doctor is), the airport (which is the only place with shops and a supermarket open on Sundays), the train station, the ludotheque (toy library) and the regular book library.
~ less than twenty minutes to the other side of the river, the main part of the city and Old Town (this assumes good traffic)
~ the French border is also less than ten minutes away, as is the Swiss A1 highway which offers easy access to the rest of Switzerland
~ for the children the playgroups we attend are all within a five to ten minute drive, as is Gymboree, where Bao just began visiting
~ and even though we live in a fairly urbanised area, a fifteen minute drive away and we're in the countryside. Cows, sheep, apple farms and all.
Writing all this down has made me realise just how lucky we have been in our apartment search here. It will be a tough act to follow when we eventually move back to Singapore. I know I'll miss the peace and quiet and J will miss his short drive to work. When we first began our search, one of our friends told us to go for the place we really liked because goodness knows just how much time we spend at home since the city isn't exactly hopping with life. Best advice yet.